1. Field
The subject invention is in the field of stringed musical instruments, particularly guitars. More particularly it is in the field of electric guitars and still more particularly electric guitars which are made as compact as feasible while incorporating a full scale effective string length.
2. Prior Art
The prior art which is closest to the subject invention and known to the inventor of the subject invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,080, titled Guitars, issued to W. S. McLellan et al. and now expired. The '080 guitars are compact and are made so primarily by routing the strings across the front faces of the bodies of the bodies and around the ends of the guitars to tuning machines on the backs of the bodies. The tuning machines are operated by knobs installed along one of the sides of the bodies.
Detailed examination of the '080 guitars brings out detail features, discussed in more detail later in this disclosure, which limit the utility and compactness of the guitars. Briefly and specifically, (1) the knobs of the tuning machines are not readily accessible when the instrument is being played or held ready to be played, (2) the distance of each string from its pick up is not individually adjustable, and (3) the mechanisms which carry the strings around the bottoms of the guitars render the guitars longer than necessary; i.e. not as compact as possible.
Accordingly, the primary objective of the subject invention is to provide a compact electric guitar which (1) has tuning machine knobs which are readily accessible when the guitar is being held in the playing position, (2) the distance of each string from its associated electronic pick up is individually adjustable, (3) the mechanism which carries the strings from the front face of the body to the back of the body and the tuning machines enable independent adjustment of the effective length of each string, and (4) the length of the guitar on which the mechanism is installed is only minimally greater than the effective lengths of the strings.